The Terminator series is a science fiction franchise encompassing a series of films and other media concerning battles between Skynet's artificially intelligent machine network, and John Connor's Resistance forces and the rest of the human race.

Skynet's most well-known products in its genocidal goals are the various terminator models, such as the original "Terminator" character, portrayed by Arnold Schwarzenegger in the first film. Schwarzenegger also portrayed other Terminator characters; however, it is made clear that these are different units. The latest film in the franchise is Terminator Salvation, released over Memorial Day weekend, 2009.

Premise[link]

The central theme of the franchise is the battle for survival between the human race and the self-aware artificial intelligence that is Skynet. Skynet is positioned in the first film as a US defense computer system by Cyberdyne Systems which becomes self-aware and, on perceiving all humans as a threat, seeks to wipe out humanity itself. It initiates a nuclear first strike against Russia, ensuring a devastating counter strike and a nuclear holocaust, wiping out much of humanity instantly. In the post-apocalyptic aftermath, Skynet builds up its own autonomous machine-based military capability, which includes the Terminators used against individual human targets, and proceeds to fight a war against the surviving elements of humanity, some of whom have organized militarily into the Resistance. At some point in this future, Skynet develops the ability of time travel, and both it and the Resistance seek to use it to win the war by preventing or forestalling their present timeline.

Judgment Day[link]

In the franchise, Judgment Day (a reference to the biblical Day of Judgment) is referred to as the date on which Skynet becomes self-aware, decides to exterminate mankind, and launches the attack on Russia. Due to the element of time travel and the consequent ability to change the future, several dates are given for Judgment Day during the franchise. In Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Sarah states that Judgment Day will occur on August 29, 1997. However, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines shows that the Judgment Day holocaust has been postponed to July 25, 2004. In Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles, the day of judgment was delayed to April 21, 2011, due to the attack on Cyberdyne Systems in T2.

The passing of the final date for Judgment Day of April 21, 2011 prompted BBC News to pose the question, "How close were the Terminator films to the reality of 2011?", comparing how far present day technology and society had developed compared to the predictions of the franchise.^[1]

Films[link]

[edit] The Terminator

The Terminator is a 1984 science fiction film released by Orion Pictures, co-written and directed by James Cameron and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, and Michael Biehn. It is the first work in the Terminator franchise. In the film, machines take over the world in the near future, directed by the artificial intelligence Skynet. With its sole mission to completely annihilate humanity, it develops cyborg assassins called Terminators that outwardly appear human. A man named John Connor starts the Tech-Com resistance to defeat them and free humanity. With a human victory imminent, the machines' only choice is to send a Terminator back in time to kill John's mother, Sarah Connor, before he is born, preventing the resistance from ever being founded. With the fate of humanity at stake, John sends soldier Kyle Reese back to protect his mother and ensure his own existence.

[edit] Terminator 2: Judgment Day

Terminator 2: Judgment Day is the 1991 sequel to the original Terminator film released by TriStar Pictures. It is co-written, directed, and produced by James Cameron and stars Arnold Schwarzenegger, Linda Hamilton, Edward Furlong, and Robert Patrick. After the machines failed to prevent John Connor from being born, they try again in 1995, this time attempting to kill him as a child with a more advanced terminator, the T-1000. As before, John sends back a protector for his younger self, a reprogrammed Terminator, identical to the one from the previous film. After eleven years of preparing for the future war, Sarah decides to use the same tactics the machines used on her: prevent Skynet from being invented by destroying Cyberdyne Systems before they create it.

[edit] Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines is the 2003 sequel to Terminator 2 released by Warner Bros. domestically and Columbia Pictures internationally, directed by Jonathan Mostow and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, Nick Stahl, Claire Danes, and Kristanna Loken. As a result of the destruction of Cyberdyne at the end of T2, the Skynet takeover has been postponed, not averted. In a last attempt to ensure a victory by the machines, a new terminator, the T-X, is sent back to kill as many of John Connor's future lieutenants as possible, including John Connor and his future wife Kate. After the future Connor is terminated by a version of his previous protector, Kate reprograms it and sends it back to save them both from the T-X.

[edit] Terminator Salvation

Terminator Salvation is the fourth installment of the Terminator film series, again distributed by Warner and Columbia, and with an original release on May 21, 2009.^[2] It was written by John D. Brancato, Michael Ferris, Jonathan Nolan, and Anthony E. Zuiker, directed by McG,^[3] and stars Christian Bale as John Connor.^[4] After Skynet has destroyed much of humanity in a nuclear holocaust, John struggles to become the leader, but in this future, Marcus Wright (Sam Worthington, who was personally recommended by James Cameron^[5]) has somehow altered it, and the T-800 (Roland Kickinger with CG-rendered facial likeness of Arnold Schwarzenegger^[6]) is coming online sooner than expected. The film also centers on Kyle Reese (Anton Yelchin^[7]) and how he became the man he was in the first film.

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Future[link]

While Terminator Salvation was initially intended to begin a new trilogy, production of a fifth film has been halted by legal trouble, as well as production company Halcyon filing for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection.^[8] While some anonymous sources^[9] insist that Terminator 5 will be moving forward, the majority of analysts predict that its future is in jeopardy.^[10][11] In late September 2009, it was announced that the rights for the franchise are once again up for sale as the Halcyon Company tries to pull itself out of bankruptcy.^[12] In late October 2009, Halcyon announced it would auction off the rights to future Terminator material and is seeking $60–70 million, though the only offer was made by director Joss Whedon for $10,000.^[13][14] In December 2009, Halcyon issued a statement saying that they are looking at various options including sale and refinancing of the rights with an announcement on the outcome no later than February 1, 2010.^[15] On February 8, 2010, an auction was held to determine the owner of the Terminator rights. After studios Sony and Lionsgate bid separately from 3 PM to 8 PM, Pacificor, the hedge fund that pushed Halcyon into bankruptcy, made a deal for $29.5 million. As of June 2010, Pacificor has hired an agency to sell off the rights to the franchise.^[16][17] In August 2010 it was reported that a new Terminator film is being developed. The new film would not be a direct sequel to Salvation, but rather an animated reboot of the original series. It will be entitled Terminator 3000 and will be shot by Hannover House.^[18] However, Pacificor, the owner of the rights to the Terminator franchise, has not given any official license to Hannover House to develop a new movie.^[19] The company posted a warning to Hannover:

On February 16, 2011 it was announced that Universal was considering a fifth Terminator film with Arnold Schwarzenegger returning as the star and with Fast Five's Justin Lin directing along with Chris Morgan as the screenwriter. Discussions for the film are in the very early stages.^[21] On April 27, 2011 it was announced that a rights package to a Terminator movie, to which Schwarzenegger, Lin, and producer Robert W. Cort are attached, but no screenwriter, is circulating among the studios. Universal, Sony and Lionsgate, and CBS Films are some of the interested companies.^[22][23] According to sources close to Schwarzenegger, he will only commit fully if a good script can be created.^[24]

It was reported on May 13, 2011, that Megan Ellison and her production company Annapurna Films won the rights to make at least two more Terminator films, including Terminator 5, in an auction deal that is rumoured to have hit the $20 million mark.^[25] While actor Arnold Schwarzenegger is said to be up for a substantial role, the film will not be anchored by him. Instead a young male actor will take the lead.^[26]

Television[link]

[edit] Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

A television series titled Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles aired on the Fox network, with Lena Headey as Sarah Connor and Thomas Dekker as John Connor. The series, created by Josh Friedman, centers on Sarah and John after Terminator 2 as they try to "live under the radar" after the explosion at Cyberdyne. Summer Glau plays a Terminator protecting the Connors. Executive producer James Middleton confirmed in Variety that the series would contain a link to Terminator Salvation;^[27] however, McG later clarified in an interview that show creator Josh Friedman "was the first to jump on and say we can't chase their story threads."^[28]

Crew[link]

Cast[link]

Key

• (y) indicates the actor portrayed the role in a flashback scene as a child.
• (v) indicates the actor or actress lent only his or her voice for his or her film character.
• Italics indicate a cameo appearance.
• A dark grey cell indicates the character was not in the film.

• ^a Uncredited.
• ^b Schwarzenegger's facial likeness was utilized via CGI, with a mold of his face made in 1984 scanned to create the digital makeup.^[29]
• ^c Biehn reprised his role in a cameo appearance. The scene was cut from the theatrical release,^[30] but was restored in the Special Edition of the film.

Reception[link]

Box office[link]

Critical reception[link]

Cultural impact[link]

The Terminator franchise has had a significant impact on popular culture, most notably James Cameron’s original films, The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The film franchise placed #17 on the top 25 greatest film franchises of all time by IGN^[51] and is also in the top 25 grossing franchises of all time. According to Rotten Tomatoes, the Terminator franchise is the sixth highest rated franchise on the site behind the Toy Story franchise, the Dollars trilogy, The Lord of the Rings film trilogy, the Mad Max franchise, and the Star Wars trilogy, but in front of the Indiana Jones franchise.

The Terminator has been selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "Culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."^[52] The American Film Institute (AFI) has also recognized both films on a number of occasions: the line "I'll be back" from The Terminator placed as the 37th best movie quote of all time, while "Hasta la vista, baby" from Part 2 ranked 76th on the same list. The Terminator character from The Terminator was voted the 22nd villain of all time; meanwhile, the T-800 (of the same likeness) in Terminator 2: Judgment Day was voted the 48th hero of all time on the 100 Heroes and Villains list; this is the only time the same character has appeared thusly on the two opposing lists. In the 100 Years...100 series list, the Terminator franchise was voted the 42nd most thrilling of all time. Finally, Terminator 2: Judgment Day ranked 8th on AFI's top 10 list in the science fiction genre.^[53]

Both films were subject to numerous pop culture references, such as the use of “I’ll be back” in countless other media, including Arnold himself in The Running Man,^[54] to several cameo appearances by Robert Patrick as the T-1000, in The Last Action Hero and Wayne's World. The Simpsons have also spoofed both films, and the T-1000 in particular, on a number of occasions.^[55]

In terms of critical reception, the first two films also stand out. Terminator 2 is thus far the only film in the series to garner attention of the Academy Award (6 nominations and 4 wins).^[56] In addition to being rated highly among top critics,^[57] Total Film has rated The Terminator the 72nd best film ever made, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day the 33rd. Both films are consistently featured on IMDb’s Top 250 list.^[58]

All four Terminator films have had very respectable box office gross, though after James Cameron left the series it saw diminishing returns in subsequent films. The Terminator made $78 million worldwide, far surpassing its $6 million budget and becoming a major sleeper hit. Terminator 2: Judgment Day grossed approximately $520 million globally, becoming a major blockbuster and the top-grossing film of 1991. Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines did not fare as well, with $433 million, making it the seventh highest-grossing film of 2003. Terminator Salvation grossed an estimated $371 million worldwide, a figure below industry expectations and the lowest of any of the sequels in the series.^[59]

[edit] Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles

Seasonal rankings (based on a weighted average total viewers per episode) for Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles in the United States:

The series premiere in the United States was watched by 18.6 million viewers during its premiere timeslot on January 13, 2008.^[61]

The pilot episode received a rating of 11.1 from Nielsen Media Research on January 13, 2008. The mainstream press reviews were generally positive. USA Today gave the premiere episode 3 and a half stars out of four, calling the series, "smart, tough and entertaining."^[62] The New York Times referred to it as "one of the more humanizing adventures in science fiction to arrive in quite a while",^[63] while the Los Angeles Times declared the show "has heart and feeling" and "an almost Shakespearean exploration of fate vs. character" that features "plenty of really great fight scenes, and explosions, as well as neat devices developed in the future and jury-rigged in the present."^[64] In addition, film industry journal Daily Variety declared the series pilot "a slick brand extension off this profitable assembly line" that showcases "impressive and abundant action with realistic visual effects and, frankly, plenty of eye candy between Glau and Headey."^[65] At the start of the second season, Variety praised "Headey's gritty performance as Sarah — managing to be smart, resourceful and tough, yet melancholy and vulnerable as well" and that the Chronicles "continue to deliver", getting "considerable mileage out of the constant peril" facing the characters.^[66] The Connecticut Post placed it on its list of the top 10 TV shows of 2008: "It's smart, with thought-provoking meditations on parenthood, destiny and human nature, and features good performances by Lena Headey, as Sarah, and Summer Glau."^[67] On Metacritic, a review aggregator which assigns a normalised score out of 100 to each review, the first season currently holds an average score of 74 based on 24 reviews.^[68] The second season has a score of 67, based on only 4 reviews.^[69]

Other media[link]

There have been several book series and comic books associated with the Terminator series. The films have been novelized as well.

Books[link]

Novels[link]

• The Terminator (first novelization) by Shaun Hutson (1984)
• The Terminator (second novelization) by Randall Frakes (1991)
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day novelization by Randall Frakes (1991)
  • The T2 Trilogy by S.M. Stirling
    • T2: Infiltrator (2002)
    • T2: Rising Storm (2003)
    • T2: The Future War (2004)
  • Terminator 2: The New John Connor Chronicles by Russell Blackford
    • Dark Futures (2002)
    • An Evil Hour (2003)
    • Times of Trouble (2003)
  • Terminator 2: Hour of the Wolf by Mark W. Tiedemann (2004)
• Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines novelization by David Hagberg (2003)
  • T3: Terminator Dreams by Aaron Allston (2004)
  • T3: Terminator Hunt by Aaron Allston (2005)
• Terminator Salvation novelization by Alan Dean Foster (2009)
  • Terminator Salvation: From the Ashes by Timothy Zahn (2009)
  • Terminator Salvation: Cold War by Greg Cox (2009)
  • Terminator Salvation: Trial by Fire by Timothy Zahn (2010)

Stirling, Blackford and Allston's individual series are of separate continuity. Tiedemann's novel follows on from Blackford's. Foster, Zahn and Cox's novels form a single continuity.

Other books[link]

• T-2: Judgment Day Book of the Film by Cameron/Wisher (1991)
• The Making of T-2: Judgment Day by Shay/Duncan (1991)
• Terminator 3: ROTM – Prima's Official Strategy Guide (2003)
• The Art of Terminator Salvation by Tara Bennett (2009)
• The Official Terminator Salvation Companion Guide by Tara Bennett (2009)

Comics and graphic novels[link]

In 1988, NOW Comics published an ongoing series with John Connor as the main character in 2029, after sending Kyle Reese back to 1984 to protect his mother. The seventeen issue series was followed by two limited series.^[70][71][72]

Dark Horse Comics acquired the rights in 1990 and published The Terminator (titled Tempest in trade paperbacks to distinguish itself), where a group of human soldiers and four Terminators come to the present, to respectively kill or protect the developers of Skynet. One of the Terminators is Dudley, a human doctor with cybernetic implants, and he betrays his group as he feels he can make a difference in the past.^[73] In the following year's sequel Secondary Objectives, the surviving Terminator leader, C890.L, is reprogrammed to destroy another Terminator sent to aid him and kill Sarah Connor.^[74] In the immediate follow-up The Enemy Within, C890.L rebuilds and modifies himself to become more dangerous than ever, while a team of human assassins attempt to return to the past and kill a Skynet developer.^[75] The 1992 Endgame concludes this arc, with human colonel Mary Randall, having lost Dudley and her soldiers in the final battle with C890.L, protecting Sarah Connor as she goes into labor. Sarah gives birth to a girl named Jane, whose future leadership means Skynet is quickly defeated and never develops time travel.^[76]

Dark Horse published a 1992 one-shot written by James Dale Robinson and drawn by Matt Wagner. It followed a female Terminator and a resistance fighter battling for the life of another Sarah Connor: Sarah Lang, who has married artist Michael Connor and intends to kill him for his money.^[77] The following year they published the limited series Hunters and Killers, set during the war, where special Terminators with ceramic skeletons and genuine organs are created to impersonate leaders in the Russian resistance.^[78] Another limited series was published in 1998, focusing on the misadventures of two malfunctioning Terminators in Death Valley. They kill a man named Ken Norden, mistaking his wife Sara and son Jon for the Connors.^[79] This set up the following year's comic The Dark Years, where Jon Norden fights alongside John Connor in 2030. In The Dark Years, another Terminator is sent to eliminate John and his mother in 1999.^[80]

Terminators have crossed over with RoboCop, Superman, and Alien vs. Predator. In the 1992 RoboCop versus The Terminator and 2000 Superman vs. The Terminator: Death to the Future, the heroes must prevent the war ravaged future.^[81][82] In 2000 Dark Horse also published Alien versus Predator versus The Terminator, where Skynet, who went dormant after Connor defeated them, have returned and are creating an Alien-Terminator hybrid. The Ellen Ripley clone (from Alien Resurrection) and the Predators join forces to stop them.^[83]

Malibu Comics published twin series in 1995. One was a sequel to Terminator 2: Judgement Day, where Sarah and John encounter two T-800s and a female T-1000. The other was a prequel exploring how Connor sent Reese and the T-800 back in time, and the creation of the T-1000 (which took its default appearance from a captive soldier). The conclusions of both series were published in one issue.^[84][85]

Beckett Comics published three series to promote Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, each consisting of two issues.^[86][87][88]

The 2007 Terminator 2: Infinity comic book series by Dynamite Entertainment (a sequel to Rise of the Machines) depicts Connor on July 17, 2009. Kate Brewster died the year before, and he is aided by a future Terminator named Uncle Bob. They create a homing signal to bring together other human survivors, beginning the resistance. The series is also tied-in to another one of Dynamite's publications, Painkiller Jane, for two issues.^[89] Dynamite are releasing a sequel Terminator: Revolution and at all the same time IDW Publishing are releasing a Salvation tie-in, possible because the former is based on the Terminator 2 license.^[90]

Games[link]

The franchise has been expanded with many computer and video games and other game types, where many are concerned mainly with the future war, rather than the time travel.

• The Terminator (1990–93) – DOS, NES, Sega Master System, Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear, SNES, Sega CD
• The Terminator (1991) – LCD video game by Tiger Electronics
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) – DOS, Commodore 64, ZX Spectrum, Amiga, Atari ST, NES, Sega Master System, Game Boy, Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear, SNES
• T2: The Arcade Game (1992) – Arcade, DOS, Amiga, NES, Sega Master System, Game Boy, Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear, SNES
• The Terminator 2029 (1992) – DOS
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day – Chess Wars (1993) – DOS
• RoboCop Versus The Terminator (1993) – Sega Master System, Game Boy, Sega Genesis, Sega Game Gear, SNES
• The Terminator: Rampage (1993) – DOS
• The Terminator: Future Shock (1995) – DOS
• SkyNET (1996) – DOS
• The Terminator Collectible Card Game (2000) – Collectible card game by Precedence Entertainment
• The Terminator: Dawn of Fate (2002) – PlayStation 2, Xbox
• The Terminator (2003) – Mobile phones
• Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) – PlayStation 2, Game Boy Advance, Xbox, Mobile phones
• Terminator 3: War of the Machines (2003) – Windows
• The Terminator: I'm Back! (2004) – A sequel for mobile phones
• Terminator 3: The Redemption (2004) – PlayStation 2, Nintendo GameCube, Xbox
• Terminator Salvation (2009) – Windows, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3

Rides[link]

• T2 3-D: Battle Across Time, at Universal Orlando, Universal Studios Japan and Universal Studios Hollywood, which was co-written by James Cameron.

See also[link]

• Grandfather paradox

References[link]

External links[link]

This article's use of external links may not follow Wikipedia's policies or guidelines. Please improve this article by removing excessive or inappropriate external links, and converting useful links where appropriate into footnote references. (June 2011)

• Terminator Wiki on The Terminator Wiki
• Terminator (franchise) at AllRovi
• Screenplays to the films
• A Whiteboard That Explains Terminator's Entire History

Peter John Kreeft (born 1937) is a professor of philosophy at Boston College and The King's College. He is the author of numerous books as well as a popular writer of Christian philosophy, theology and apologetics. He also formulated, together with Ronald K. Tacelli, SJ, "Twenty Arguments for the Existence of God".^[1]

Academic career[link]

Kreeft took his A.B. at Calvin College (1959), and an M.A. at Fordham University (1961). In the same university he completed his doctoral studies in 1965. He briefly did post graduate studies at Yale University.

Kreeft has received several honors for achievements in philosophical reasoning. They include the following: Woodrow Wilson, Yale-Sterling Fellowship, Newman Alumni Scholarship, Danforth Asian Religions Fellowship, and Weathersfield Homeland Foundation Fellowship.

He joined the Philosophy faculty of the Department of Philosophy of Boston College in 1965. His intellectual reputation stems from his strengths in debating and summarizing the philosophical arguments of the major Western philosophers. He has debated several academics in issues related to God's existence. Shortly after he began teaching at Boston College he was challenged to a debate on the existence of God between himself and Paul Breines, an atheist history professor, which was attended by a majority of undergraduate students. Kreeft later used many of the arguments in this debate to create the Handbook of Christian Apologetics with then undergraduate student Ronald K. Tacelli, S.J..

In 1994, he was a signer of the document Evangelicals and Catholics Together.

Conversion story[link]

A Calvinist, Kreeft regarded the Catholic Church "with the utmost suspicion."^[2] A key turning point was when he was asked by a Calvinist professor to investigate the claims of the Catholic Church that it traced itself to the early Church. He said that on his own, he "discovered in the early Church such Catholic elements as the centrality of the Eucharist, the Real Presence, prayers to saints, devotion to Mary, an insistence on visible unity, and apostolic succession."^[2] The Church fathers such as Augustine and Jerome were clearly Catholic and not Protestant, he stated.

The "central and deciding" factor for his conversion was "the Church's claim to be the one Church historically founded by Christ."^[2] For he applies C. S. Lewis's trilemma -- either Jesus is a liar, a lunatic, or the Lord to the Church: "either that this is the most arrogant, blasphemous and wicked claim imaginable, if it is not true, or else that He is just what He claims to be."

On the Bible issue, he refers to the church preaching that forms the basis for writing the Bible and the approval needed from the church to ascertain the contents of the Bible. To this he applied the axiom: "a cause can never be less than its effect. You can't give what you don't have. If the Church has no divine inspiration and no infallibility, no divine authority, then neither can the New Testament."^[2]

His conversion took place as he asked God for help, praying that "God would decide for me, for I am good at thinking but bad at acting, like Hamlet."^[2] It was then that he says he "seemed to sense" the call of saints and his favorite heroes, to which he assented.

According to Kreeft's personal account, his conversion to Catholicism was influenced by things such as:^[2]

• the thought of the relatively small number of Calvinists vis-a-vis God's willingness to save many - because if the Bible tells us that God is going to save many, then it seems that he must be intending to do so.
• a simple way of understanding God's demands in terms of asking God what he wants us to do, and then doing it
• the logic of asking saints to pray for us as we ask friends to pray for us
• medieval art and philosophy (Gothic architecture, Thomistic philosophy)
• reading St. John of the Cross whose writings he viewed as really "something as massive and positive as a mountain range"
• a visit to St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York when he was twelve years old, "feeling like I was in heaven... and wondering why, if Catholics got everything else wrong, as I had been taught, they got beauty so right. How could falsehood and evil be so beautiful?"^[3]

Quotes[link]

• Let's get very, very basic and very, very practical about prayer. The single most important piece of advice I know about prayer is also the simplest: Just do it! The major obstacle in most of our lives to just saying yes to prayer, the most popular and powerful excuse we give for not praying, or not praying more, or not praying regularly, is that we have no time. The only effective answer to that excuse, I find, is a kind of murder. You have to kill something, you have to say no to something else, in order to make time to pray.^[4]
• Without qualification, without ifs, ands, or buts, God's word tells us, straight as a left jab, that love is the greatest thing there is (1 Cor 13: 13). Scripture never says God is justice or beauty or righteousness, though he is just and beautiful and righteous. But "God is love" (1 Jn 4:8). Love is God's essence, his whole being. Everything in him is love. Even his justice is love. Paul identifies "the justice of God" in Romans 1:17 with the most unjust event in all history, deicide, the crucifixion, for that was God's great act of love.^[5]
• Ideas are more precious than diamonds. The three most precious ideas I have ever discovered all concern the love of God.^[6]
• What is God's Answer to Human Suffering? The answer must be someone, not just something. For the problem (suffering) is about someone (God—why does he... why doesn't he ...?) rather than just something. To question God's goodness is not just an intellectual experiment. It is rebellion or tears. It is a little child with tears in its eyes looking up at Daddy and weeping, "Why?" The hurt child needs not so much explanations as reassurances. And that is what we get: the reassurance of the Father in the person of Jesus, "he who has seen me has seen the Father" (Jn 14:9).^[7]
• Saints are not freaks or exceptions, they are the standard operating model for human beings. Because, as Charles Péguy put it, “life holds only one tragedy, ultimately: not to have been a saint.” In fact, in the biblical sense of the word, all believers are saints. Saints are not the opposite of sinners. There are no opposites of sinners in this world. There are only saved sinners and unsaved sinners. Thus holy does not mean “sinless” but “set-apart:” called out of the world to the destiny of eternal ecstasy with God.

He also formulated together with R. Tacelli, SJ, Twenty Arguments for the Existence of God, what he calls a "cumulative case", and thus "all twenty taken together, like twined rope, make a very strong case," he states.^[8] In 1971 Kreeft published an article entitled "Zen In Heidegger's 'Gelassenheit'" in the peer-reviewed journal International Philosophical Quarterly, the philosophy journal published by Kreeft's alma mater, Fordham University.

Bibliography[link]

• Love Is Stronger Than Death (1979) — On the meaning of death and life
• Between Heaven and Hell: (1982) — A Dialog with John F. Kennedy, C. S. Lewis, and Aldous Huxley
• The Unaborted Socrates (1983) — Socratic dialogue on abortion
• The Best Things in Life: (1984) — Twelve Socratic dialogues on modern life
• Yes or No? (1984) — Straight Answers to Tough Questions about Christianity
• Making Sense Out of Suffering (1986) — On the meaning of suffering
• Fundamentals of the Faith, Essays in Christian Apologetics (1988)
• Heaven, the Heart's Deepest Longing (1989)
• Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Heaven... But Never Dreamed of Asking (1990)
• Summa of the Summa (1990) — Summa Theologica edited and explained for beginners
• Three Philosophies of Life (1990) - Ecclesiastes (life as vanity), Job (life as suffering), Song of Songs (life as love)
• Back to Virtue (1992) — Traditional moral wisdom for modern moral confusion
• Shorter Summa (1993) — Shorter version of Kreeft's Summa of the Summa
• Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal's Pensees (1993) — Blaise Pascal's surprisingly modern insights
• Handbook of Christian Apologetics (with Ronald K. Tacelli) (1994)
• C. S. Lewis for the Third Millennium (1994) — Six essays on Lewis' Abolition of Man
• Shadow-Lands of C.S. Lewis : The Man Behind the Movie (1994)
• Angels (and Demons): What Do We Really Know About Them? (1995)
• The Journey A Spiritual Roadmap For Modern Pilgrims (1996)
• The Snakebite Letters Devious Secrets for Subverting Society (1998)
• Refutation of Moral Relativism — Dialogues between a relativist and absolutist (1999)
• Prayer for Beginners (2000)
• Catholic Christianity (2001)
• Socrates Meets Jesus (1987/2002)— Socratic dialogue with students of Harvard University's Divinity School
• Three Approaches to Abortion (2002) — A thoughtful and compassionate guide *How to Win the Culture War (2002)
• Philosophy 101 by Socrates (2002) — An introduction to philosophy via Plato's Apology
• Socrates Meets Machiavelli (2003) — Socratic dialogue between Socrates and Machiavelli
• Socrates Meets Marx (2003) — Socratic dialogue between Socrates and Karl Marx
• Socratic Logic (2005) — A textbook on classical logic.
• Socrates Meets Sartre : Father Of Philosophy Meets The Founder of Existentialism (2005) — Socrates and Jean Paul Sartre
• The Philosophy of Tolkien: The Worldview Behind "The Lord of the Rings" (2005)
• The Sea Within (2006)
• The Philosophy of Jesus (2007) — On the wisdom of Jesus
• Because God Is Real : Sixteen Questions, One Answer (2008)
• Socrates Meets Kant (2009) — The Father of Philosophy Meets His Most Influential Modern Child
• Between Allah & Jesus: what Christians Can Learn from Muslims (2010)

Audio Lectures[link]

• "Beauty" — The branch of philosophy dealing with aesthetics.
• "C. S. Lewis and Mere Christianity" — C.S. Lewis' masterpiece
• "Christianity in Lord of the Rings" — The cleverly disguised role of God in Tolkien's classic
• "Culture War" — A call to arms, mapping key enemies and battlefields
• "Existence of God" — A magnificent overview of the arguments
• "Good, True, Beautiful" — C.S. Lewis on three great transcendentals
• "Happiness" — How do you get it? Christ's version vs. the world's
• "Heaven" — The heart's deepest longing
• "Hollywood Screenwriting" — Encouragement to film's creative storytellers
• "If Einstein Had Been a Surfer" — Rediscovering intuitive thinking
• "Lord, Liar, or Lunatic" — The famous argument for Christ's identity
• "Problem of Pain" — C.S. Lewis's brilliant exposition on suffering and evil
• "Sex in Heaven" — Imaging the fire of God's love
• "Sexual Reconnection" — Healing the link between sex & love
• "Shocking Beauty" — The live character of Christ

COURSEWARE

• "What Would Socrates Do?: The History of Moral Thought and Ethics" — University-level course in a Barnes & Noble Audio Book
• "What Would Socrates Do?: Faith and Reason" — University-level course in a Barnes & Noble Audio Book
• "The Philosophy of Thomas Aquinas" — University-level course in a Barnes & Noble Audio Book

See also[link]

• American philosophy
• Christian apologetics
• Christian ethics
• Christian philosophy
• Christian theology
• List of American Catholics
• List of American philosophers

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website http://www.peterkreeft.com
• Writings at Catholic Educator's Resource

Peter H. Duesberg
Peter Duesberg
Born	(1936-12-02) December 2, 1936 (age 75) Münster, Germany
Residence	Oakland, California
Fields	Cancer
Institutions	University of California, Berkeley
Alma mater	University of Frankfurt
Known for	Oncogene research; AIDS denialism

Peter H. Duesberg (born December 2, 1936 in Münster, Germany) is a professor of molecular and cell biology at the University of California, Berkeley. He is known for his cancer research and for his central role in AIDS denialism as an early and vocal proponent of the belief that HIV does not cause AIDS.

Duesberg received acclaim early in his career for research on oncogenes and cancer. With Peter Vogt, he reported in 1970 that a cancer-causing virus of birds had extra genetic material compared with non-cancer-causing viruses, hypothesizing that this material contributed to cancer.^[1][2] At the age of 36, Duesberg was awarded tenure at the University of California, Berkeley, and at 49, he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences. He received an Outstanding Investigator Grant (OIG) from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in 1986, and from 1986 to 1987 was a Fogarty Scholar-in-Residence at the NIH laboratories in Bethesda, Maryland.

Long considered a contrarian by his scientific colleagues,^[3] Duesberg began to gain public notoriety with a March 1987 article in Cancer Research entitled "Retroviruses as Carcinogens and Pathogens: Expectations and Reality".^[4] In this and subsequent writings, Duesberg proposed his hypothesis that AIDS is caused by long-term consumption of recreational drugs and/or antiretroviral drugs, and that HIV is a harmless passenger virus. The scientific consensus is that HIV is the causal pathogen that leads to AIDS;^[5] Duesberg's HIV/AIDS claims have been rejected as incorrect and disproven by the scientific community.^[6][7][8] Reviews of his opinions in Nature^[9] and Science^[10] asserted that they were unpersuasive and based on selective reading of the literature, and that although Duesberg had a right to a dissenting opinion, his failure to fairly review the evidence for HIV causing AIDS meant that his opinion lacked credibility.^[10][11]

Duesberg's views on HIV/AIDS are cited as major influences on South African policy under the administration of Thabo Mbeki. Duesberg served on an advisory panel to Mbeki, convened in 2000. The failure of South Africa to provide antiretroviral drugs in a timely manner, due in part to the influence of AIDS denialism, is thought to be responsible for hundreds of thousands of preventable AIDS deaths and HIV infections.^[12][13] Duesberg disputed these findings in an article in the journal Medical Hypotheses,^[14] but the journal's publisher, Elsevier, later retracted the article over accuracy and ethics concerns as well as its rejection during peer review.^[15][16] The incident prompted several complaints to the University of California, Berkeley, which began a misconduct investigation of Duesberg in 2009.^[17][18] The investigation was dropped in 2010, with University officials finding "insufficient evidence...to support a recommendation for disciplinary action."^[19][20]

Duesberg continues his research on cancer in both Berkeley and an alternative lab in Germany, as well as his activities within the AIDS denialist community.^[6]

Biography[link]

Duesberg grew up during World War II, raised as a Catholic in Nazi Germany.^[21] He moved to Berkeley, California, in 1964 to work at the University of California, Berkeley, following completion of a Ph.D. in chemistry at the University of Frankfurt.^[21]

Work[link]

Cancer[link]

In the 1970s Duesberg won international acclaim for his groundbreaking work on cancer.^[22] Duesberg's early work on cancer included being the first to identify the oncogene v-src from the genome of Rous sarcoma virus, a chicken virus believed to trigger tumor growth.^[21]

Duesberg disputes the importance of oncogenes and retroviruses in cancer. He supports the aneuploidy hypothesis of cancer that was first proposed in 1914 by Theodor Heinrich Boveri.^[21][23]

Duesberg rejects the importance of mutations, oncogenes, and anti-oncogenes entirely. Duesberg along with other researchers, in a 1998 paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, reported a mathematical correlation between chromosome number and the genetic instability of cancer cells, which they dubbed "the ploidy factor,"^[24] confirming earlier research by other groups^[25] that demonstrated an association between degree of aneuploidy and metastasis. Although unwilling to concur with Duesberg in throwing out a role for cancer genes, many researchers do support exploration of alternative hypotheses.^[26] Research and debate on this subject is ongoing. In 2007, Scientific American published an article by Duesberg on his aneuploidy cancer theory.^[27] In an editorial explaining their decision to publish this article, the editors of Scientific American stated: "Thus, as wrong as Duesberg surely is about HIV, there is at least a chance that he is significantly right about cancer."^[28]

AIDS[link]

In his 1996 book Inventing the AIDS Virus and in numerous journal articles and letters to the editor, Duesberg asserts that HIV is harmless and that recreational and pharmaceutical drug use, especially of zidovudine (AZT, a drug used in the treatment of AIDS) are the causes of AIDS outside Africa (the so-called Duesberg hypothesis). He considers AIDS diseases as markers for drug use, e.g. use of poppers (alkyl nitrites) among some homosexuals, asserting a correlation between AIDS and recreational drug use.^[29] This correlation hypothesis has been disproven by evidence showing that only HIV infection, not homosexuality nor recreational/pharmaceutical drug use, predicts who will develop AIDS.^{[5][7][30][31][32]}